Paper short abstract:

Drawing on empirical sociological phenomenology this auto-ethnographic paper explores the embodied practices and knowledges involved in interspecies sport. This creates an inter-subjectivity and inter-corporeality through interaction with non-human species.

Paper long abstract:

Traumatic life events produce unhappiness. Dealing with the unhappiness, the emotional 'deadness', the vulnerability, fear and anxiety is debilitating. This auto-ethnographic paper explores how the embodied practices and knowledge involved in interspecies work with racehorses brought about a gradual reconciliatory sense of perspective on emotional well being and 'happiness'. It contributes to a developing body of literature investigating sensuous embodiment. It uses empirical phenomenological sociology (Schwarz, 2002) to examine how a 'dys-appearing body', (Leder, 1990) brought to consciousness through emotional pain, remakes contact with practically embodied attitudes and dispositions, the catalyst of which is working with and riding racehorses. The paper will argue that the body's 'openness' of being suggests an intermundane space which intertwines with other embodied sentient beings, creating an inter-subjectivity and inter-corporeality through interacting with non-human species. My analysis will explore how this inter-corporeality contributes to the recreation of 'happiness'.

References

Leder, H. 1990. The Absent Body. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press

Schwarz, H. 2002. General features. Ethnographic Studies 7:33-52.